The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 328

blessings whioh he would naturally have Revised Version). For his oppression for enjoyed but for his wiokednese. Zophar his violence, for his insatiable greed°, he here threatens him with the loss of thoee she.II be punished by retaining nothing or po.rooieiaoo.l delights which tho Orientals all thoso delightful things wbich he b,ul o.eaooiated with wo.ter in o.11 ite forms, laid up for himself daring the time that he whether ne n1l~E1, or "rills derived from was powerful e.nd proeperom,. lo.rger streams," or ne •in:,, " rivers," or as Ver. 21.-There ahall none of hie meat be •~n::,, ••brooks" or "torrents," now strong left; re.ther, the'Te wa• nothing left that M o.nd impetuous, now reduced to a mere devoured not, or nothing remained 011er /mm thtend. These nro so.id poetically to flow his eating (Schultens). Scarcely intended with honey and butter, not, of course, in any literally, as Co.non Cook supposes. Rather lit.ernl sense, such o.s Ovid may have meo.nt, said in reference to the wicke<l man'• per- when, in describing the golden o.ge, he sistent oppression and robbery of the poor, said- • the needy, and the powerless ( corn p. vers. 19, 20; and note our Lord's words, " Ye "Flumin11, jo.m laolis, jam flumina nectaris de11our widows' houses," Matt. xxiii. H). ibant :" Therefore shall no man look for his goods. (' Metaph.,' i. 111.) This is an impossible rendering. Trans- but as fertilizing the land through which late, with Rosenmiiller, Canon Cook, Stanley they _ran, and so co.using it to abound with Leathes, and our Revisers, therefore his pros- bees and cattle, whence would be derived perity shall not endure. In other words, a butter o.nd honey. Compare the terms in Nemesis shall overtake him. For his op- which Cannan was described to the Israelites pression and cruelty he shall be visited by (Exod. iii. B, 17; xiii. 5; Deut. :uvi. 9, 15, the Divine anger; a audden enJ shall be .etc.). made of his prosperity, and he shall fall into Ver. 18.-That which he laboured for he penury end misfortune. Covert allusion is, ·shall restore. Even that which he gets by no doubt, intended to Job's sudden loss of his own honest labour he shall have to part his extraordinary prosperity by the series with and give up. He shall not swallow it of calamities so graphically portrayed in .down; i.e. " sho.11 not absorh it, and mo.ke eh. i. 13-19. it his own." • Aocording to his substance Ver. 22.-In the fnlnese of his sufficiency shall the restitution be. So Schultens, he shall be in straits, Even while his Professor.Lee, and Dr. Stanley Leathes, who wealth and prosperity remain, he shall find understand Zophar as asserting that, in himself in difficulties, since every hand of order to compensate those whom he has the wioked (or rather, the hand of every one robbed, the wicked man will have to make that is wretched) shall come upon him ; over to them o.ll the wealth that is honestly i.e. all those who are poor o.nd miserJ.ble, his. Others translate, "According to the especially such as he has made poor and substo.nce that he bath gotten, he shall not miserable, shall turn against him, and vex rejoioe" (see the Revised Version, and the him. commentaries of Ewald, Delitz,ch, and Ver. 23.-When he is about to fill his Dillmann). belly (oomp. vers. 12-18); i.e. "when he Ver. 19.-Beoause he hath oppressed and is on the point of making some fresh attack bath forsaken the poor. These charges are upon the wea.k and defenceless." God shall now for the first time insinuated against oast the fury of his wrath upon him (comp. Job; later on, they are openly brought by Ps. lxxviii. 30, 31, where a far less harmful Eliphaz (rh. uii. 5-9). Job denies them lust is noted as having brought down the -cabegorically in oh. :uili:. 11-17. They Divine vengeance). And shall re.in it upon seem to have been pure calumnies, without him while he is eating j or, as his food an atom of foundation. Because he hath (comp. Ps. :ii. 6, "Upou the wicked he shall violently taken away an house which he min snares, fire anJ hrimstone, storm an<l builded not. Another co.lumuy, doubtloss. tempest : this shall be 1/ie portion of 1/11!:ir Something like it was insiuuo.te<l by Eliphaz cup''). in oh. xv. 28. Ver. 24.-He shall flee from the iron Ver. 20.-Surely he shall not feel quiet- weapon. This is no indication of the Ia.te neBB in his belly j rather, because he knew no o.uthorship of Job. Iron was in use in quietness in his belly, or within him (see the Egypt at a very early date. A thin plate Revised Version); i.e. because his greed and of it was found by Colonel Hown.rd Vyse his ropo.oity were insatiable-he was never embedded in the masonrv of the great nt rest, hut coutinW1lly oppressed o.nd plun- pyramid; and iron implements and orua- dered the poor more 1md more (see the com- ments, iron spear-heads, iron sickles, iron ment on vor. 19). He shall not save of gimlets, iron keys, iron bmcelets, irou wire, that which he desired; or, he shall not s<111e have beeu foun<l in the earl v tombs uot infre- au11ht of that wherein hi delighteth (see the quently (see the e.uthor•~ 'lii.itory of A.ucieal M2 THE BOOK OF JOB.